Melbourne Maternity and Newborn travel session
2020… what a year. Not that I need to remind anyone of that… but you know, just in case this blog post appears somewhere in 20 years time, it’s important to discuss these things first.
Maternity and newborn sessions - I really love these. And even more so when they both are done in-home. It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to witness a family on the cusp of a huge transition, whether it’s from none to one kid, or multiple to more. Life is about to change, everyone knows it (except maybe the toddlers) but no one quite knows what it’s going to look like on the other side of that delivery suite. And to observe this happen in the same space, it’s magical.
So when Sarah, a fellow photographer at Muka Portraits, based in an eastern beach-side suburb of Melbourne, asked me if I’d travel down there to capture her family as 3, then again as 4, I was super bloody excited!
I’d never met Sarah, but to be asked, not only to photograph another photographer, but to travel approximately 1400km in two round trips, to do it was an absolute privilege. I know of, and am friends with a lot of very talented photographers who live a whole lot closer to Sarah than myself, but to have Sarah pick me out because she loved my work was such an honour.
In Sarah’s own words “I chose you because of your freedom with photography. I also love how you see light. And I love that you have no set formula to your families, it looks like you tell their story, not your own.”
THIS.
I’d been struggling with this for a while. I had this feeling that I ‘should’ be doing things differently. I tried to seek out other ways, paid lots of money to lots of people to hear their points of view, I started to question if I was doing it all wrong. But none of it sat well with me. I’ve never been one to follow trends. If it doesn’t feel right or authentic, then I just can’t bring myself to do it that way. Then these words of Sarah’s came through, right at the right moment that I was questioning it all. Screw the ‘shoulds’. This was a good wake up call of the whole ‘you do you’ theory of life. I was on the right track all along and this was the confirmation that I needed to hear.
She was right. I don’t have a set formula. I almost never go into a shoot with a plan. I think and shoot on the fly. I may take some similar photos from one session to the next, but you can guarantee that I won’t force something that isn’t. I may set up some of my photos in the same way, but each family is unique in how they fit together and fall apart with the guidance that I give. I won’t make you out to be a family that you’re not. I want to capture you for being just you and to celebrate that. I don’t want to photograph the perfect family, dressed in the perfect coordinated linen outfit, in the perfect architecturally designed home. I just want to photograph you.
Kids are energetic and won’t stop moving?
Kids quiet and shy and won’t engage?
Husband who is reluctant and doesn’t want to be there?
Worried your house isn’t good enough/new enough/quirky enough?
I read the mood, the situation and match my energy and directions to meet you where you and your family are.
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So down to Melbourne I drove, mid January 2020, on the smokiest day Melbourne had yet experienced, then back to Albury, into more, intensly thick smoke. And back I went to Melbourne again in mid March, on the brink of the world shutting down because of COVID and back to Albury just in time to hibernate my business for a couple of months and start homeschooling my kids.
You can read Sarah’s own story here, in her own words about her journey. I’m not here to tell that story. That’s hers to tell. But I am here to show you some of the gorgeous photos we took over those 2 sessions earlier this year.
